It's not just cars — here's the hot commodity much of the U.S. can't afford

Death, taxes and exponential price hikes in most consumer goods. 

These are just a few facts of life that these days are generally accepted as guarantees. 

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The latter part has been especially true over the past couple of years. August's Consumer Price Index increased 0.6%  — the largest increase of 2023. And when you break out individual sectors, things don't look much rosier. 

Food in general is up 4.3% as of this August compared with the year-earlier month. Here's a breakdown of how different aisles and departments rose over the past 12 months:

• Cereals and bakery: increase 6%
• Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs: unchanged
• Remaining products (ranging from dairy to beverages): increase 0.3% to 4.8%
• Food away from home: increase 6.8%

Used cars and trucks fell 1.2% year-over-year, but new cars and trucks rose 0.3%. 

Those may not seem like much, but a new car still costs an average of more than $48,000 — as of May 2023 only three models were available in the U.S. market for $20,000 or less.

Transportation similarly rose 10.3% over the same period but shelter, which rose 7.3%, "was the largest factor in the monthly increase in the index for all items less food and energy," according to the CPI. 

Shelter is the CPI's benchmark for measuring housing costs and its relationship with inflation. It's based more on rent prices, but an increase in rent typically correlates closely to a rise in housing costs across the board. 

That has proved to be no exception in 2023, as a recent study is shedding light on how affordable (or unaffordable) homes really are. 

A For Sale sign is posted in front of a home for sale in San Marino, Calif., on Sept. 6, 2023. With U.S. mortgage rates rising to 15-year highs, hovering around 7.2% to start the post-Labor Day period, the difference between new 30-year home loan rates and on all US mortgage debt outstanding has not been this wide since the 1980s. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP)

FREDERIC J. BROWN/Getty Images

New study finds housing in much of the nation is unaffordable

A study released by housing-market-data aggregator Attom finds that as mortgage rates and house prices rise, the affordability squeeze tightens. Fewer folks are able to afford houses in their area — or anywhere else in the country, for that matter. 

"Median-priced single-family homes and condos are less affordable in the third quarter of 2023 compared to historical averages in 99% of counties around the nation with enough data to analyze," Attom reports. "The latest trend continues a two-year pattern of home ownership getting more and more difficult for average U.S. wage earners."

Here are some fast facts from the survey: 

• On average, at least 35% of average wages are required for home ownership expenses (highest level since 2007)
• Most lending standards require 28% debt-to-income; 35% is considered "unaffordable"
• In 2021, this metric stood at just 21%
• The nationwide median home price is $351,250
• Median home prices in 574 of the 578 counties studied in Q3 are less affordable than in years past (up from 552 counties in Q3 2022) 

Lenders typically benchmark expenses as a percent of wages at around 28%. 

"This pattern really jumps out," Attom Chief Executive Rob Barber said. "While lenders will often push the 28% rule, especially if buyers have lots of financial resources outside of wages, we now are seeing fully three-quarters of markets around the country pushing the basic lending benchmark."

By county, here's where the biggest increases in the portion of average wages required for home ownership costs have developed over the past year: 

1. Santa Cruz County. Calif., (up from 101.9% in Q3 2022 to 122.7%  Q3 2023) 
2. Orange County, Calif., (outside Los Angeles) (up from 73.8% to 94.6%)
3. Monterey County, Calif., (up from 84.4% to 105.3%)
4. Beaufort County (Hilton Head), S.C. (up from 52% to 68%)
5. Santa Barbara County, Calif., (up from 69.6% to 84.9%)

And here's how much annual wage you'd need to afford a typical home in the following counties: 

1. New York County (Manhattan), N.Y.: $407,125
2. Santa Clara County (San Jose), Calif.: $357,889
3. San Mateo County (south of San Francisco), Calif.: $356,519
4. Marin County (north of San Francisco), Calif: $325,323
5. San Francisco County, Calif.: $319,673

"Among the 578 counties in the report, only four (1%) are more affordable than their historic averages in the third quarter of 2023. That is less than 4% a year ago and far below the 52% level in the third quarter of 2021," the study found. 

The average 30-year-mortgage rate sits at 7.31% as of Sept. 29, 2023. The average national income is $71,214.